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Alan J Hartley
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The Season Moves On.
My last Article spoke of the “Odd Weather,” that we had throughout the
Winter and Spring, and it hasn’t got any more “Normal,” as the weeks
have gone by. Going into “Flaming June,” we had a few very cold nights
that were close to producing a Frost with a sprinkling of Snow over the
hills in Scotland. The second half of June saw things heat up a bit
though and we had a much warmer spell, but even that was a lot cooler
than most of Europe, Asia and Africa where they had “Record Breaking,”
temperatures. Into July and we had temperatures that were below average
with some more cold nights when it went down to 5 or 6 degrees
Centigrade! Many Plants have just been sitting there with it being too
cold for them to grow properly. The days have been quite sunny for the
most part though and some plants have taken advantage of that –
especially the weeds!
Even with the strange Weather things have been happening on the
Allotments with Seeds being sown and Plants planted. My first sowing of
Runner Beans failed and I did re-sow them, but they just rotted in
ground, however, I got a few Plants from Work and they are doing alright
now. In fact, the Runners are starting up the Canes quite well, but the
Dwarf French Beans don’t seem to be doing very much. They are a bit
strange to grow though, because when you look at the Plants, they always
seem to be too small to do anything and then when you take a closer
look, you find great clusters of juicy Pods. You often think that you
haven’t grown enough Plants to be worthwhile, but from a handful of
small plants you can get quite a big haul of Pods for cooking.
My Squash, Courgettes and outdoor Cucumbers are also well behind,
although I have to admit, they did go in late as well. I must say that
my various Flowering Plants, that I grow for cutting, are doing well
producing bucket loads of cut flowers. The differently coloured
Alstroemerias in particular, are growing well, as are the lovely
orange/red Fox & Cubs, and Blue and White Scabious. Even my
Chrysanthemums are trying to flower although it is a bit early for them.
The Gloden Rod, Asters, and cultivated Toad Flax are all coming on as
well and starting to show some colour as of writing this. I have also
added some differently coloured Iris’s to my cut flower collection. A
Yellow and a Purple Bearded Iris, and smaller, naturalising Blue.
Hopefully, they will bulk up a bit in what is left of the Summer and
produce some worthwhile Flowers next Season.
Some of the Vegetables have done alright in spite of the odd weather and
my Broad Beans are a case in point. I started harvesting them in
mid-June, from the early sowing that was done at the end of last Autumn
and am just about to pick the later sowing, that was done around the end
of February/March time. A friend who planted his later in the Spring has
found that his Plants are covered in Black Fly whereas mine hardly have
any on. The reason is that my plants had just about finished growing
when the Fly started to appear, so my plants had no tender young shoots,
whereas his plants had all new and soft foliage which is what the Black
Fly go for. One simple solution is to pinch out the soft and tender
growing tips where most of the Fly gather. You can also try Garlic and
Soap Sprays, and planting Marigolds amongst them is said to deter the
Black Fly. The Asparagus also harvested well which was surprising after
such a wet Winter because they prefer drier conditions and will die if
it is too wet.
The Soil in my raised Asparagus Bed is fairly soft so it isn’t difficult
to get weeds out, but I “Mulched,” round a Friends Asparagus to supress
the Weeds and make weeding easier in the future as Asparagus Plants
don’t like you digging around them with a Fork, or Spade. Of course, my
Sea Kale was the first thing to harvest back at the end of Feb/March and
would have been in full flower by now if I had left it. However, I
usually cut off all the Flower Stems as they start to come up and this
encourages the large “Cabbage Like,” fleshy Leaves, to grow which re-energise
the plants ready for their harvest early next Spring. Some people eat
these, but they are very tough and bitter. The Globe Artichokes had
looked very bad through much of last Winter, but recovered well and I
put a fresh Mulch round them as they like moisture and do suffer if it
is a hot and dry Summer. There have been plenty of “Heads,” on them and
I have left some to develop into the very spectacular, Thistle like,
Flowers. Bees and other Insects love these big and bold, blue flowers. I
have also been picking plenty of Rhubarb, although it was slow to start.
However, I have never seen so many Slugs Eggs on the Stalks before.
After the wet Winter Slugs are being a real problem on the Allotments in
general this Season. We are allowed to use Slug Pellets on the
Allotments, but Plot Holders are advised to use the “Organic,” or Ferric
type which are a paler blue in colour and supposed to be safe for
Wildlife. They are a little more expensive and not always readily
available, but one advantage is that they are not harmful to Pets or
Children if they accidentally get eaten.
The crazy Weather also seems to be throwing the Fruit development all
over the place with it ripening all out of sequence. First should come
the Strawberries, then the Loganberries and Early Raspberries followed
on quickly by the Gooseberries and then, later on, the Currants, late
Raspberries and at the end of August/September, the Figs and
Blackberries. After this it should be the start of the Apples, Quinces
and Pears, and Hazelnuts. Medlars are the last of the regular Fruits to
be picked, but they shouldn’t be ready until we have had the first real
Frosts of the coming Winter. However, as I say, everything seems to be
getting mixed up and not ripening in order. When the Fruit started to
ripen, I found myself picking Rhubarb, Raspberries, Logan Berries and
Black Currants all on the same day and when I looked at one of my Fig
Trees, I found that one Fruit had already ripened and gone rotten!
On the subject of Fruit, I have also been “Thinning the Fruit,” “Tying
in” stray branches that had come loose and pruning the excess growth
from my Fruit Trees. When the Fruit had started to develop, I could see
where to safely cut without removing any Fruit by accident. This allows
a bit more Light to get at the Fruit to help ripen it, but more
importantly allows better air circulation that may prevent some problems
with fungus and mould from developing. The added weight of the Fruit
often means that Branches need securing better and strings break from
time to time anyway, so they need checking periodically. While going
over my Trees I finally decided to remove an unproductive Tree that I
always believed was a Wild Quince. Every year it struggled to hold on to
its Leaves as soon as we had any drier weather and never showed any
signs of producing Fruit or even Flowers. So, I cut it down before
removing the Stump. As with the Prunings, I shredded what I could of the
Branches before using them as a Mulch in my Garden to supress the Weeds
and improve the Soil a little. As I have so many Fruit Trees the
question is what to plant in its place? Whatever I decide to go for it
won’t be many weeks until Autumn comes which will be a much better time
to plant a Tree so I shall leave it until then.
On a different subject, the Allotments Committee decided to arrange a
talk on Composting to be given by a lecturer from Grow Organic.
Technically we are not an organic site as we haven’t been certified yet,
but we are trying to head in that direction. With this in mind, we have
had our own Composting Facility that any Plot Holder can make use of for
some time, but we felt we wanted to see how we could improve the
operation. There was a Fee that had to be paid to Book the Lecturer, but
after all of our Fundraising of late, the Committee felt that it would
be worthwhile. I have to admit that I was a bit sceptical about its
benefits but was pleasantly surprised by the Talk. It was well
structured, informative and yet entertaining and the time went by
quickly. After the Talk the Chap made a site visit to see our Compost
Bins so that he could give us his opinions on how we might improve
things. Firstly, he was a bit taken-a-back by the size of our Bins as he
normally deals with Composting operations made from Pallets. Then he did
say that the only real way we could improve things is to operate like
the Councils do with huge great big open piles that get turned regularly
by Diggers. As that wouldn’t be practical, he advised that we get our
friendly Farmer to turn the Heap inside the Bin as it fills rather than
just doing it when it has been filled. He was impressed by the
Temperature that we were achieving though. His thermometer registered 40
degrees in one place and then 60 degrees in another. This indicated that
it needed to be turned more to evenly spread the composting bacteria
that raise the Temperature and give it a better mix. He also said that
he would help with notices to encourage Plot Holders to put the right
waste into the Bin and keep out the unsuitable rubbish. When told of our
rebuilding plans, he did have one comment on our thoughts and that was
that we should be very careful of any treatment used on any of the
Timbers that we might use in its reconstruction as Chemicals could leach
out into the Compost and contaminate it. Whatever we decide to do it
will not be until the Autumn before anything gets done anyway. So
hopefully, use of the Compost Heap will be less frantic by then making
it easier to work on.
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